How do you get the first 36 characters of a string?

Question

I have a string, and I don't know if it is more than 36 characters or not. If it is longer that 36 characters I only want the first 36 characters:

var longString = "sdfkjhs3 234kjh khjk 234kjh 234kj h23k423h4 23k4";
var templongString = longString.substring... ?

Edit

I was trying

var longString = "sdfkjhs3 234kjh khjk 234kjh 234kj h23k423h4 23k4";
var templongString = templongString.substring(longstring, 36);

Please do not rollback my edits. Your question has nothing to do with jQuery. — Paul, Jan 15 '14 at 16:57
Because simply looking up the [substr](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/substr) method could have answered your question. — tenub, Jan 15 '14 at 16:57
@Paulpro i was trying to delete question and by mistake rolled back your changes, sorry... — tereško, Jan 15 '14 at 16:58
Consult the docs: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/substring — hunterc, Jan 15 '14 at 16:58
Negative vote because you didn't specify [what you already tried](http://whathaveyoutried.com/). — BryanH, Jan 15 '14 at 17:00

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 15 '14 at 16:54

5

var templongString = longString.substring(0, 36);

This will truncate the string to 36 characters.

answered Jan 15 '14 at 16:54

James

2

@AlienArrays what about the spaces? It's just a string – rorypicko Jan 15 '14 at 17:01

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 15 '14 at 16:57

1

You can do:

if(longString.length > 36) {
     var templongString = longString.substring(0, 36);
}

edited Jan 15 '14 at 16:57

Paul

answered Jan 15 '14 at 16:56

Felix

1

The `if` is redundant. If the string length is less than 36, `substring(0, 36)` [will return the entire string](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/String/substring#Description). – BryanH Jan 15 '14 at 17:08

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 15 '14 at 17:00

1

You can use the String.prototype.slice method (which also saves a few characters):

var newString = longString.slice(0, 36);

I personally prefer this implementation as it's expected behaviour aligns with Array.prototype.slice.

answered Jan 15 '14 at 17:00

Todd Motto

What browser are you testing in? The link you provided actually contradicts what you're saying except for the one case in Chrome 33 generally substr is faster (with long strings) – rorypicko Jan 15 '14 at 17:04

3 Answers3